Alabama Trip - Friday and Sunday - MECA Car Stereo Competition

The intended purpose of the weekend was to attend a MECA Stereo competition in Alabama. This intention was almost compromised. It was Thursday afternoon that I was informed that my amplifier had been shipped to the wrong location. It was shipped to Pittsburgh to TNT instead of directly back to me. After some phone calls and further consideration, it was determined that the amp would be overnighted to me from TNT with someone else paying the tab. It wasn't my mistake and I wasn't about to pay for it.

With this development, I was very happy that I had taken Friday off of work. I was going to need all of the time I could find to get my car prepared both for the trip and for the competition. I was up very early on Friday. James was in town for work and had crashed at my place so that we could hang out for a while. I had to have him across town for 9 AM. It was great to have had this opportunity and it also played well into my plans. Since I had to be up to get him to work, it also assured that I would be awake once my FedEx delivery would be made.

All of my activities for Friday, minus packing, revolved around my car. I was preparing a installation booklet outlining the equipment in my car and the effort associated with it. To complete the book, I needed my car complete. I had received my speakers on the previous Friday, so the big wait was all about the amp. The amp was delivered at approximately noon. From that point on, it was a rush to get it tested, photographed and finally installed. Angel got home shortly after 2 and I was just wrapping up the final details of the installation. It took me roughly another hour to get the booklet completed and then it was time to get the packing done.

So, you might be wondering, why didn't I pack between getting home and getting my delivery. Well, it was anxiety. I couldn't focus on packing when I was preoccupied by the work that would follow once my amp did arrive. Therefore, after a quick pack job and loading up the car, we were off around 4. The first stop on the trip was to Kinkos to get the booklet printed out. Everything was already set in a file ready for printing on my thumb drive. Kinkos just had to print and bind it for me. The booklet was comprised of 5 printed pages with a clear front and back. Once the 5 pages were printed, I used their paper cutter and handed them the document back to be bound. With covers, it turned out to be 12 pages and it was spiral bound.

With all of this done, it cost a mere $13 out the door. I can't imagine what it would have cost if I had asked for someone else to do the prep work. Unfortunately, once I decide to change the configuration or add new equipment, I will have to re-do it to some degree. I guess I would have been better off using 8.5 x 11 pages with a 3 hole punch instead of the 8.5 x 5.5 spiral bound pages. This would have made it a bit more flexible. Anyway, it is unique.

After getting the document printed, cut, and bound got us on the road at 5 PM. You can read about the drive in the other Alabama trip post. Another touch on the preparation for the trip included a two day car washing effort. I took the car on Tuesday to a DIY car wash to get her clean and didn't finish off with the liquid wax. Wednesday was the wax job. I found a new tool that I thought would be interesting to try. I picked up a Mother's Power Ball.
It came with a bottle of liquid wax, so I gave that a shot too. Typically, I like to use Mother's Gold paste wax and do it within direct sunlight so it gets very hard and shines marvelously. So, a liquid wax was a new effort for me. In using this new "toy" and liquid wax, I tore through 4 drill batteries just to get the car waxed. I either have to apply this stuff by hand next time or get more batteries so that a lull in the action doesn't happen again. (I had to wait for another battery to charge before I could finish completely.)

So, the drive to Alabama did a number on my wash & wax job. I had expected some degradation of the job, but the number of bugs that were collected on the front bumper and windshield were horrible. Even after a quick wipe down on Sunday morning, there were still bugs left over. So, the drive from Huntsville to Boaz was a bit more exciting than I would have liked to find. The directions that I pulled up terminated about 15 minutes short of our destination. Another word to the wise, double check the location that a mapping service pulls up for you before printing and leaving. The address that Google Maps grabbed for me was not correct and created a brief but stressful situation when we landed in the wrong location.

So, the flyer for the competition event sponsored by Wild Bill's Electronics in Boaz, Alabama indicated that registration started at 9 and that the competition judging would start at 10:30. Well, I don't know what judging started at 10:30, but it certainly wasn't the sound quality judging. Anyway, we got there at approximately 9:30 and had our area setup and registered by 10. I entered into two competitions, Sound Quality (Amateur bracket) and RTA Freq Out. You can find the specifics about these two events in the rule book, but I will gloss over the events to save you some reading.

The objective in the Sound Quality (SQ) event is to have the most realistic reproduction of the selected competition material as possible. This reproduction includes staging as a criteria. The term staging represents that all of the frequencies appear to originate from in front of you. In the amateur class, this is all that is important, however, in the non-amateur classes there are more aspects such as direction (center/left/right), height, and width. There are many more criteria, such as system noise, frequency response, linearity, dynamics, and ambiance. The system noise check can only reduce your score, not enhance it. Frequency response is in regards to the clarity and ability to reproduce the frequencies with accuracy. Linearity is in regards to how the frequency response reacts to volume changes; are the frequencies reproduced equally at different volumes? Dynamics are in regards to the ability of the system to accurately reproduce the high and low volumes within the material and ambiance is the ability to reproduce the size and space of the environment in which the music was recorded. The rulebook gets into more detail about how to score each of these areas.

So, since I am in the Amateur class, I am scored on a 70 point scale and scored a 49.5. The winner of the event scored a 54.5. My score put me into 3rd place and was awarded a trophy for it.

The RTA Freq Out event is based on how the system reproduces each frequency range. Pink noise is used to hit all of the frequencies at the same time. A microphone and electronic meter are used to display how the frequencies are being played with an EQ readout. The objective of this event is to have a flat line response across all frequencies. This event is scored on a 40 point scale. My system scored a 27 and the winner scored a 32. This performance was good enough to place me in second of two. Once again, I was awarded a trophy for this event.

Before I get into what can be improved, lets talk about the last award that I received. I was awarded the SQL Most Improved. Typically, this award goes to the competitor that has most improved their system from one competition to another. Therefore, since this is my absolutely first competition, how can I be considered for this award. Well, the reason for this was because of the clinique. MECA league members are able to take advantage of a system review by the judge prior to official judging. Of course, since this was my first event, I certainly took advantage of this offering (I became a MECA member when I registered for the event).

After the clinique, the judge brought to my attention that I was missing some frequency reproduction between my door drivers and my tweeters. Those frequencies are controlled by the passive crossover network. This was not an active crossover or an amplifier controlled area. Therefore, I knew that the only way to change it would be to hit the crossover type control switch inside the passive crossovers. Once the judge came around for the official judging and finished my car, his comment was to the effect of, "that change made your system sound like a completely different car". Between making that major of a change and the fact that this was the first MECA event in the area for the year, they made the exception to the rules to award me with the honor.

Event Results (Be sure to click on the SQL Results link).

My Score Card:


Event picture album.


So, what did I learn during this experience? Well, the first thing I figured out is that in order to improve my performance, I have tons of work to do. I had the opportunity to listen to some of the other competition vehicles (including 2 class winning vehicles that scored 80+ each) and I have a long way to go to get close to that score. The points that I have immediate control of to improve for the next competition is tweeter placement and front stage adjustments. I was told that the stand-up bass was imaging in the rear rather than the front. This will be a simple crossover change for the next comp. Also, to improve my ambiance score, it was recommended that I put my roof & windows up. I don't know if it will hurt or help me to do so. Having the roof & windows up will introduce more surfaces for the frequencies to bounce. It is my opinion that right now, my system sounds better open than closed. I guess will have to wait until I can attend another comp to find the answer to that one.

There is one more major thing that I can do to improve the performance of my system. The RTA Freq Out pointed out to me that without an EQ, there is very little that I can do to make major improvements. Unfortunately, based on my system design, my options for an EQ are very limited and are very expensive. I did some searching at some of the major player websites and have concluded that I have three options.

EQ Installation

Zapco DSP6-SL & DRC-SL processor ($1,000)
Audio Control DQS ($499) and DDC ($180)
Alpine PXE-H650 ($450)

Alpine System Overhaul.

iDA-X200 - Digital Media Receiver ($300)
PXA-H100 - IMPRINT Audio Processor ($180)
KTX-100EQ - IMPRINT Sound Manager ($250)

After further review of the KTX-H100EQ is not the same as the required add on of the KTX-H100 required for the PXA-H100 to be used. This cost should be less than $250.

At this time, I am not sure as to what solution I am going to take. The two Alpine units (stand alone EQ or system overhaul) look appealing. However, I am not sure I want to cross the line into a realm that is a slippery slope. The Alpine components are known to inter-operate with themselves the best. I don't have the cash or desire to replace my amps also. If I had to pick right now, the Audio Control unit would be the one I would buy. However, I think more research will be required.

Also, while at the competition, I was able to talk directly with the owner of a sound quality based stereo shop in Atlanta. Granted, the shop is about an hour from home. It is such a relief that there are some shops in the ATL area that I can rely on with questions and part requests that will know what I'm after. With the addition to this ship, I now know of two shops with which I can obtain assistance with my car. The other one is much closer, but they don't compete anymore.

I'm sure now that I've successfully completed my first competition that it won't be my last and that the progress with my stereo is far from done. Even if/when I get my car to a point to call it complete, there is still Angel's car to be dressed. I'm sure that will provide just as much if not more updates in the future.